The Bible is very clear that God’s essence is love (1 John 4:7-10). He has always been love, even before He created the first human beings. He has always sought to have a close relationship with them because they were made for this love. The entire story of humanity is wrapped up within it. Love is why humans were created, and love is their eternal destiny. This truth is taught throughout Scripture, beginning with Adam in the Garden of Eden.
When God created Adam, He said to him, "I will make a partner suitable to you." (Genesis 2:18 NIV) God was declaring the hidden purpose of His heart from eternity past, the mystery of the ages. The Holy Spirit reveals that this promise ultimately speaks of Jesus and the Church (See Ephesians 5:25-6:1).
God proved He is love by sending Jesus to walk among mankind and die in their place (John 3:16). He now reaches out in tender affection with nail-pierced hands, most purely and intimately.
Sadly, many are not yet able to experience the fundamental reality that Father God loves and enjoys them. Some would argue that God could not possibly be in love with them. What a person believes about God is the most important thing contained in their mind. It affects everything about them.
For too many people, God seems remote, impersonal, and unknowable. Because of that, many suffer from an inability to feel forgiven, nagged by doubt and mistrust of Him. A dysfunctional picture of God results in a dysfunctional way of praying. Jesus revealed this truth;
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?" asked Jesus. "Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" (Luke 11:11-13 NIV).
Those who had an earthly father who was never around when they needed him or have experienced trauma, abuse, or extreme and hateful discipline will have a very difficult time pursuing an intimate relationship with the heavenly Father.
Love Defined
The Bible speaks of "agape" and "phileo" love. Agape has been defined as a self-sacrificial love committed to the highest good. It is a love that is not dependent on emotions. Without it, no one could be saved (John 3:16). With "Agape" love, God set aside His wrath against mankind and poured it out on the Beloved Son.
"Phileo" love is best defined as tender affection, love from the emotions in a person’s soul. It is that kind of love that responds to love from another. It is the love of true friends, the love of a child for his parents or for another child, and the love between a husband and wife.
This kind of love can be casual or intense. “Phileo” love can’t be relegated to human emotion. Jesus used this word to describe the Father’s love for Him (John 5:20), and It is also used to describe the Father’s feelings toward the Son’s disciples (John 16:27).
But What About Esau?
The verse that is most often quoted to support that God hates people is when He spoke to Malachi and said,
“‘I have loved you,’” “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ ‘Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ The Lord responded, “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have HATED, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals’” (Malachi 1:2-3 NIV – also Romans 9:10-13 - emphasis mine).
The English word ‘hated’ comes from the Hebrew word ‘sane,’ which can also be translated as "scorn," "slight," or "be an enemy of." ‘Sane’ represents an emotion ranging from intense "hatred" to the much weaker "set against" and is used for persons and things (including ideas, words, and inanimate objects).
It is critically important to study the context of a verse or passage when studying the Bible. It has been said that if you remove the context from the text, you will be conned! The verse is an example of hyperbole, which is an exaggerated language used to make a very strong and specific rhetorical point. It has nothing to do with the human emotions of love and hate and everything to do with God choosing one man and his descendants and rejecting another man and his descendants. God chose Abraham out of all the men in the world and his son Isaac instead of Abraham’s son Ishmael.
To hate someone is to count and treat them as an enemy. Hatred is not primarily an emotion but a covenant action. Those who treat God as an enemy will find God treating them the same way. Since they are His enemies, He will destroy them.
The strong sense of the word typifies the emotion of jealousy and covers emotions ranging from "bitter disdain" to outright "hatred" (See Genesis 37:4,8,11,18). One special use of ‘sane’ is ingressive, indicating the initiation of the emotion (See 2 Samuel 13:15; Jeremiah 12:8; Hosea 9:15). In a weaker sense, ‘sane’ signifies "being set against" something (See Exodus 18:21. It may also indicate that someone is untrustworthy (See Genesis 26:27). The word may mean "unloved" in the sense of deteriorating marital relations (See Deuteronomy 22:16). This nuance is especially clear where the verb is in synonymous parallelism to "alienated" (Ezekiel 23:28). In the case of two wives in a family, in which one was preferred over the other, it may be said that one was loved and the other ‘hated’ (See Genesis 29:31; Deuteronomy 21:15 NIV). [From Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.]
The book of Romans confirms that loving Jacob and hating Esau was wholly related to which of them God chose. Hundreds of years after Jacob and Esau died, the Israelites and Edomites became bitter enemies. The Edomites often aided Israel’s enemies in attacks on Israel. Esau’s descendants brought God’s curse upon themselves.
“May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.” (Genesis 27:29 NIV)
The prophet Malachi, as well as the Apostle Paul, used the name “Esau” to refer to the Edomites, who were the descendants of Esau. Isaac and Rebekah had two sons, Esau and Jacob. God chose Jacob (renamed ‘Israel’) to be the father of His chosen people, the Israelites. God rejected Esau (called “Edom”) and did not choose him to be the father of His chosen people. Esau and his descendants, the Edomites, were in many ways blessed by God (See Genesis 33:9; 36).
It is important to understand that it was David who said God hates the workers of iniquity and the wicked (Psalm 5:5; 11:5;17; 139:21-22), and it was Solomon who said that God hates the feet that make haste to run to evil the sacrifices, ways, and thoughts of the wicked (Proverbs 6:18, 15:8-9,26). These verses were not “Thus saith the Lord!”
Jesus is not a God of hate but of “love” (1 John 4:8, 16). However, because He is also perfectly true, righteous, and holy, He must hate evil because it is the opposite of everything He is. God hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans (See Revelation 2:6)
The Bible tells us that anyone who has not repented and received Jesus as Lord and Savior is already condemned under God's holy anger against sin (John 3:17). He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:10). Because God is love, He has provided the way of salvation from sin and condemnation through Jesus, who died in our place. However, He will judge those who reject Jesus (Romans 3:23).
Here is another example of Jesus employing hyperbole to make a strong and specific rhetorical point.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26 NIV)
Jesus is not telling us that we must literally ‘hate’ our parents but is saying that our love for Him must be so overpowering and all-consuming that, in comparison with it, our love for our families almost looks like ‘hate.’
The important thing to bear in mind is that God cannot possibly “hate” you. He loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you. He would have done so if you were the only person who had ever lived.
God, says the Apostle Peter, “is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The Bible makes several references to God’s hatred of sin and unrighteousness and not individuals:
“These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19 NIV)
“All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from My house” (Hosea 9:15 NIV)
“‘Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor, and do not love a false oath, for all these are things that I hate,’ says the Lord” (Zechariah 8:17 NIV).
God does not want the death of the wicked,
"Although He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked." (Ezekiel 33:10 NIV)
I have come to see that the revelation of His affection and enjoyment for every individual on this planet is vitally important for emotional and spiritual health, whether male or female. The Great Commandment is the foundation of the Christian walk. The reason God wants Christians to love Him with all their heart, soul, and mind is because that is how He loves them! (Matthew 22:37-40)
The amazing truth is that every Christian is a love gift given by the Father to the Son and will always be the object of Jesus' prayers! This is one of the greatest mysteries of God. Jesus sees each Born-Again Christian as personally belonging to Him forever. Nothing can separate them from His love. It is not because they believed on Him but because the Father has given them to Him!
"My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand." (John 10:29 NIV)
In His prayer of intercession, Jesus thanks the Father seven times for giving them to Him. (See John 17) Every Believer belongs to the Father and to the Son because God is madly in love!
The Atonement of Jesus
The atonement is about Jesus, the Lord and Creator of all things, becoming human according to God’s will “to give His life a ransom”…“for all” (See Acts 2:23 NIV). God “laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6 NIV). Jesus “has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God” so that those who believe in Him might receive atonement and “be saved from [God’s] wrath” through “the precious blood of Christ” (Ephesians 5:2; 1 Peter 1:19 NIV).
When Jesus became the perfect covering and the absolute substitute sacrifice for sin, not only was the wrath of God poured out, but also the love of God toward sinful humanity. The intent of the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross was not to influence man's morals but to satisfy the demands of divine justice. Throughout the Old Testament, all the symbols and examples of atoning sacrifice are complete and fulfilled in the New Covenant. Jesus's disciples clearly understood this.
The violent death of Jesus brought about reconciliation - or at-one-ment - between humanity and God. It reinstated the intimate position humanity was destined to enjoy with God before the fall in the Garden of Eden.
The atonement cleanses the repentant person from sin. This change starts within the new Christian at the moment of salvation. It is revealed in their changed attitudes, actions, behavior, beliefs, perspectives, etc., and can help them be an effective spiritual warrior and a catalyst of change in the world.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote about the coming of the suffering Messiah and graphically described what the Savior would endure while paying the ultimate price for the forgiveness of sins. "By His stripes, ye were (past tense) healed" (Hebrew: ‘rapha’ = to be completely mended and cured) (Isaiah 53:5 NIV).
In the context of forgiveness, the Apostle Peter quotes the Prophet Isaiah, who says that the blood of Jesus heals humanity’s sin because He, by one offering, put away sin forever. Thus, the soul becomes healed from the ultimate consequences of sin.
The Bible says that Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24 NIV). The context explicitly speaks of sin, righteousness, and spiritual healing.
Why We Need to Repent and Forgive
When a person receives Jesus as their Lord and Savior, the Creator of the universe comes to dwell inside of them. Jesus forgave their sins past – present – and future because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8 NIV). Jesus has given Christians the power to forgive. Their life should be characterized by forgiveness because Jesus first forgave them once and for all. Hence, they are to “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” and be “kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:32 NIV).
God has given Christians His assurance that their sins have already been forgiven (1 John 2:1 NIV). The constant intercession of Jesus assures us that they have forgiveness - right now! (Romans 8:26 NIV). They appropriate His forgiveness and reconcile their relationship by repenting of their future sin(s).
Genuine repentance involves a change in emotional attitude towards sin. The proof of this is the production of good fruit and holy behavior (Matthew 3:8, 7:17; Galatians 5:22). Repentance is not having sorrow or remorse for sin, which is worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow through repentance brings life (Matthew 27:3-5; Luke 18:23; 2 Corinthians 7:9). True repentance involves not only a conviction of personal sinfulness but also an earnest appeal to God to forgive according to His mercy.
“O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1 NIV)
When a person comes to see the Lord for who He truly is - LOVE incarnate - they can truly understand and "rely on the love God has for us" because "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16 NIV) and there are no conditions attached to receiving God's blessings.
